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Outsiders/Issue 1
Lance sighed as he stared out of his bedroom window. His eyes followed the smoke in the distance as it emerged from behind the trees and slowly dispersed into the sky. That smoke was his home town, or at the very least part of it. He guessed it was the shopping centre, or maybe the old brewery on the next road. With an even louder sigh than the first, he turned from the window and eyed each of his three closest friends in turn, examining them as they too moped in silent thought on the bunk beds. Carson Monroe, his best friend, was lying on the bottom bunk with his shoes kicked off. His eyes were staring at the mattress of the top bunk as if it held the answers to everything that was happening, but obviously it didn't, unless Carson had been hiding whatever powers the mattress possessed for the past eight years. Lance noted that Carson wasn't wearing his usual cocky grin; not surprising, given the situation. Anton Smith was perched on the edge of the of the bed, leaning forward. He was obviously put off by the thought of leaning any further backward and coming into contact with Carson's feet, which had a reputation around Marshwood for being rather toxic (as far as the care kids were concerned, the smell of Carson's feet ranked next to mustard gas on a scale of deadly airborne weapons). Lance actually found it rather funny that Anton, who was so jittery and anxious when he'd first arrived at the home, was the second most composed of all the residents in this godawful chain of events. He had to be second, of course, because Lilly was number one. To Lance, Lilly Mason was like an unsolved Rubik's Cube. He'd learned bits and pieces about her, but whenever he'd feel close to knowing her, she'd throw yet another curveball. This was the girl who used to go out clubbing and have guys, girls and hookers climb in in through her window in the middle of the night for casual sex; just so she could examine their reactions when they turned on the light post-coitus and noticed her Scooby-Doo themed bedroom. Which incidentally was the only place where Lance had seen a Hello Kitty nightlight, an intermediary guide to Krav Maga and a soldering iron on the same table, all of which were the same ghastly shade of neon pink (he didn't know how Lilly had got her hands on pink variants of the last two items, and quite frankly, he didn't want to). The more he thought about her, the more questions popped into his head, so he just stopped. And that was when he realised that she was looking him straight in the eye. "Are you staring at my tits?" she asked with a totally straight face. She was lying on the top bunk, on her back, with her head dangling upside-down over the edge. She suddenly smirked and began to laugh. "I'm winding you up dickhead, don't be so serious. Oh god, you should've seen your face." "Yeah, he looked like a right bellend. Like always." Carson said, rolling onto his side to face Lance and flashing him the cocky grin that he was so well known for. "Oh, hey Carson, welcome back. I didn't realise you'd given up on the magical mattress of mystery yet. And I thought you weren't a quitter?" Lance said in retort. "Magical mattress?" "He's right Carey" Lilly said from above Carson, but without averting her eyes from Lance. "You've been staring at that thing for fifteen minutes, does it have some kind of secret or is it just your lover?" "First of all; if you call me Carey again then I'll slice your tits off. Second of all; how the fuck do you know? You're up there, you can't see me...can you?" "Mirror, Carey" she told him. Lance turned and immediately realised that his mirror was behind him. Lilly hadn't been staring at him alone, she was also watching Carson and Anton. "That's it" Carson shouted in mock outrage, as if he were a pantomime dame being played to perfection by the fabulous Christopher Biggins. "I'm gonna go get the Stanley and we'll see how those B cups look as floor decorations Lil." "C cups dickhead, I'm sixteen, they're still growing. Perhaps if you actually got somewhere with a girl, you'd know the difference." "Perhaps if you'd let me play with them again, I'd be able to have hands on experience of the difference." To illustrate his point, Carson made a groping motion in the air, to which Lance had to stifle a slight chuckle. "Nice try, Carey, but I'm not in the mood for athletes with ego problems right now." "Hey, I don't have an ego pro-" "OH FOR FUCKS SAKE!" Anton shouted, interrupting their banter with his abrupt statement. "In case you idiots haven't noticed, it's the end of the bastard world! Miss Allen died last night, and then she came back as a bleedin' psycho cannibal!" He paused for breath. "Fuck your so-called witty banter, we need to make a plan on how to get out of here. You guys saw Lawson last night, he's jumping off the deep end without any armbands, and we all know full-well that he can't swim." Lance would've loved to call that a great analogy, put Anton was right in a literal way. Two years ago, Lawson had fallen into the local pool and a lifeguard had to drag him out. The memory made him snigger slightly, as he remembered how Lawson had narrowly escaped receiving mouth-to-mouth from a man who both looked and acted like a walking homosexual stereotype. "Anton's right" Lilly said. She pushed herself over the edge of the bunk bed so that she was hanging on by just her legs, and then flipped herself over, landing safely on her feet. "So, what's the plan?" "I...well, I was hoping you'd have one..." Anton said. He semi-hung his head, as if to indicate slight but not total embarrassment. "Well, I think that our primary focus should be getting out of here. Agreed?" "Agreed" Lance replied, while Carson and Anton simply nodded in response. "Shouldn't we be asking Max and Caitlin about this?" Carson asked, finally sitting up. "Caitlin's talking to Mr G, trying to find out his thoughts on all this" Anton told him. "And Max is too busy helping Rachel block all of this out. Last night was a close call for her" Lance added. He thought back to how Miss Allen had come back from the dead and attacked his girlfriend's sister, who was like a daughter to him. It was terrifying. "Luckily you dealt with that thing before it caused any harm." As Lilly spoke, the worst memories of the previous night came back to Lance. The rush to grab that old chair, the jolt that went up his arm as he smashed it over Miss Allen's head, the frantic race to pick up the snapped-off leg and finish the job. And then the sickening crunch of her skull caving in. "So, who are we looking at taking with us, everyone but Lawson?" Lilly continued. "We're not taking Jake" Lance told her, followed by a nod of agreement from Carson. "Yeah, I get that" Anton said. It was clear that the whole room was remembering the same thing, the time when Lance caught Jake...pleasuring himself... with Maxine's underwear. Jake was lucky to have escaped with just a black eye and a broken nose. If the care workers hadn't been on hand, none of them really knew what Lance would've done, but they all knew that it wouldn't have been pretty. "So that's settled then?" Carson asked them. "It's us, Max, Rachel, Caitlin, Claire, Mr G and Karl." "Karl?" Anton asked him with a raised eyebrow. "You know, Mrs Marks. I was making a communist joke." "Marks and Marx are spelled differently." "Cry me a river ginge." "Can we get back on topic?" "Yeah, sure" "Alrighty then..." Lilly said, leaning back against the ladder on the side of the bunks. "We need three things: weapons, a vehicle, and most importantly a destination. I'm gonna recommend heading into the old army surplus in town, and then hooking up with my old friends below the ground." "You think they'll be alive?" Lance raised his eyebrows in doubt. He wondered how she expected a handful of homeless guys to survive when the army was run down in days, "Lance please, these people are only found if they want to be. These aren't beggar in the doorway types we're talking about, they're hard bastards and they have a pretty good way of getting around too. With all the roads blocked, the sewers reign supreme." "She's got a point" Anton said. "In that case I'll break down the plan." Lilly said as she climbed back up on top of the bed and went back to hanging her head over the edge. "I'll handle the weapons, if that wasn't already obvious." The second statement was seemingly aimed at Carson, who seemed to deflate almost immediately having been told that he wouldn't be assembling anything even remotely lethal. "On the other hand, Carey" Lilly continued, smirking as she noticed her friend's annoyance. "I need you to brush up on your hotwiring skills. I'll lend you my book on it, because I can't focus on defending the group and driving at the same time. You'll be our Stig." "The getaway driver, sweet, I like it." "Lance, you have two dependents. I need you to make sure that they have their stuff packed and ready to go, and I also need those chemicals that we stole from the school chemistry lab once. Do you remember, the ones we used to make snappers." "Yeah, they're still behind that panel under the bed. Mr G's given me permission to sleep in Max and Rachel's room til they feel safe again, so you'll just have to pop in when no one's looking." "Good good. As for you Anton, I need those satin pouches you keep your gemstone collection in." "Really Lil, you want my satin?" "Yes, unless you want to stand outside that surplus shop with no way in and a mob of those things coming after you..." "What do y- oh forget it, take them." "Good ginger, have a biscuit." Lilly pointed at the biscuit barrel on Lance's table with a completely straight face. When no one moved, it became a frown. "Lance, give him a biscuit, please." Lance reluctantly stood, pulled a chocolate digestive from the barrel, and passed it to Anton. Rather than taking the chance of waiting for Lilly to prompt him, Anton quickly wolfed down the biscuit, and then coughed as a few crumbs went down the wrong way. Lance and Carson could barely stop themselves from laughing. "All humour aside" Lilly interrupted, talking rather loudly in order to be heard over the orchestra of laughter and coughs. "You boys really need to get some more variety. I mean yeah, you've got the staples: choccy digestives, rich tea, Maryland cookies for special occasions. I think I even spied a party ring in there, but that's beside the point. Where are the big guns? Custard creams, pink wafers, shortbread, those caramelised ones that you get with your coffee at Costa. And for fucks sake, where are the bourbon bastard creams? I really fancied a bourbon, and the closest thing I could find was a half eaten Oreo. You need to get your shit together." Lance honestly couldn't decide whether she was joking or being serious, though he expected the latter to be true. He wondered if she might not be a Rubik's Cube, but instead a rather long safe combination, that unlocked horrors he could only imagine. She could be either a puzzle or a ticking time bomb, and when he solved her, he'd face either a celebration or an explosion. Not knowing what to say in response to her tirade, he just smiled, which seemed to please her. "Nice one. Now, you three need to fuck off while I get to work." "Lilly, this is mine and Lance's room." Carson told her, prompting her to roll onto her front and lean over the edge of the bed, so she was face to face with him, albeit still upside down. "Carson, I need those chemicals, but more than that, I need you to fuck off for five minutes." She turned to Anton. "You too matey, and you Lance." "Bu-" Carson tried to speak, but Lilly wasn't having it. "No buts, Carson. Now off you fuck." Deaths *Jane Allen (mentioned) Trivia *First appearance of Lance Taylor *First appearance of Carson Monroe *First appearance of Anton Smith *First appearance of Lilly Mason *First mention of Jane Allen *First mention of Anthony Lawson *First mention of Maxine Crayton *First mention of Rachel Crayton *First mention of Caitlin James *First mention of Jim Grant *First mention of Claire Grant *First mention of Harriet Marks *First mention of Jake Hughes *This issue originally featured Carson's girlfriend, Juliet, before her character was scrapped. *This issue originally showed the reanimation of Jane Allen, and how Lance put her down. **This idea was scrapped when the writers found it difficult to introduce fourteen characters in one scene.